Chapter 616: Conquering Baoning Prefecture

In the hall of the county government, Yang Mingzhao sat high in the main seat, looking at the people below, with a kind smile on his face.

"Taiping County can be governed by your efforts, thank you for your hard work!"

At this time, Yang Mingzhao's temperament has also changed a lot. He used to be full of nobility and had a sense of transcendence, but now he is more friendly and more majestic.

Occupy the position and cultivate the spirit.

The change in identity and status has made Yang Mingzhao grow a lot.

"I dare not say it's hard work. It is a blessing for us to serve the lord!" Qi Zhang said first.

This is his true words. He has lived for more than 40 years, but he can only be a teacher in a private school.

The arrival of Yang Mingzhao not only changed his life, but also gave him the opportunity to display his abilities.

The same is true for others. If Yang Mingzhao hadn't come, how could they have the opportunity to be officials in Taiping County.

"Haha, Mr. Qi, there is no need to be modest. We are all pleading for the people. Since the court is not doing anything, let us save the world and the people!"

"I believe you have heard that the bandits in the north have occupied Hanzhong Prefecture, the righteous army in the east has occupied Jiujiang Prefecture, the Black Tiger King in the south has occupied Bozhou, and the Nine Heavenly Kings have occupied Wusa Prefecture."

"The world is in chaos, it is time for us to make achievements and save the world and the people!"

"After two years of dormancy, it is time for us to expand!"

Yang Mingzhao said slowly, his tone was very calm, but his words were full of ambition.

Two years ago, he occupied Taiping County with some nonsense, just because he felt that the people were poor, so he wanted to do something to help the people.

But now he has sprouted a sense of pride in his heart.

He wants to save the world and save the people, to make sure that everyone can have enough food, clothes, and houses, and no longer be exploited by landlords and gentry, and no longer be oppressed by corrupt officials.

He has a greater sense of responsibility to take the world as his own responsibility, and a greater ambition to dominate the world.

"Yes, it is time for us to expand! The people of Taiping County have already lived a good life, and we should let more people live a good life!" Chen Buyu was the first to support.

"Yes, we want to let more people live a good life!"

"Get rid of all those corrupt officials!"

Everyone echoed.

Especially those who took refuge with Yang Mingzhao in Taiping County, most of them were born in poverty, hated corrupt officials the most, and were most likely to empathize with poor people.

"Very good, then let each department talk about the troops and money we have now!" Yang Mingzhao looked at Deng Xing and said, "Old Deng, you talk about our soldiers first!"

Deng Xing immediately replied: "We currently have 3,000 camp soldiers, and these 3,000 camp soldiers are fully equipped and can go out at any time."

"In addition to the camp soldiers, we have also trained 8,000 peasant soldiers in the past two years. The combat effectiveness of peasant soldiers is much worse, but they can serve as civilian laborers!"

"In addition, we have 300 chariots, 80 warships, and more than 300 mules and donkeys!"

Fighting in Bashu is completely different from fighting in a mountain town. Fighting in the northern border town mainly relies on cavalry, but fighting in Bashu is not possible.

First of all, most of the southwestern horses in Bashu are short and not suitable as war horses, but only as pack horses.

Secondly, Bashu is mountainous, especially in the north of Bashu, which is mainly forested and not suitable for large-scale cavalry combat.

So fighting in Bashu should be mainly infantry, supplemented by chariots.

The warships Deng Xing mentioned were not seagoing ships, but flat-bottomed boats suitable for sailing in inland rivers.

These ships can be used to transport soldiers and food, or to fight in the river.

Yang Mingzhao nodded, and looked at Ma Yan and said, "What about silver and food?"

Ma Yan said, "We currently have 132,360 taels of silver. As for food, after collecting the autumn tax, we should have 80,000 shi of food!"

Yang Mingzhao is not short of silver at present. He seized a lot of silver from the confiscation of houses, and he has earned some from well salt and tea in the past two years.

If they were to expand, they would not be short of silver, after all, they would continue to confiscate houses.

In contrast, food is more scarce. They have only collected two years of land tax.

And they also built city walls, official roads, etc. before, which also consumed a lot of food.

They hired civilians to build city walls and roads, and they had to provide food and pay wages.

On the contrary, digging wells and building canals do not require wages and meals, because they are canals built for the people themselves. As long as someone calls for it, most people are willing to work hard.

"Eighty thousand stones! Enough for 10,000 people to eat for more than half a year! But we still need to leave some food!"

Yang Mingzhao said while calculating: "In this case, we will dispatch 3,000 camp soldiers and 7,000 farmers. 1,000 farmers will be stationed in Taiping Village in the north, 500 farmers will be stationed in the county government, and 100 farmers will be stationed in each of the other checkpoints."

"In this way, 3,000 camp soldiers and 5,000 farmers can be mobilized to go to war!"

"The time for the expedition is half a year, and the goal is to capture Baoning Prefecture!"

The Taiping Village in the north was specially built by them. It was originally to stop the bandits in the north. Now that King Daliang has occupied Hanzhong Prefecture, they also need to guard against King Daliang.

This time, Yang Mingzhao will not occupy Kuizhou Prefecture, but will set his sights on Baoning Prefecture to the west of Taiping County.

The terrain of Baoning Prefecture is high in the north and low in the south, with Wanshan Ridge in the north and Bashu Plain in the south.

Yang Mingzhao and King Daliang had the same idea, both wanted to occupy a place that was easy to defend but difficult to attack.

If the King of Daliang had not occupied Hanzhong Prefecture, Yang Mingzhao's first target would have been Hanzhong Prefecture. It was because the King of Daliang occupied Hanzhong Prefecture in advance that Yang Mingzhao chose Baoning Prefecture as a second choice.

Once they occupied Baoning Prefecture, they would block most of the roads that the King of Daliang went south to Bashu.

Although both sides were rebels, Yang Mingzhao did not want to get involved with the bandits like the King of Daliang.

So he took the initiative to occupy Baoning Prefecture, and also wanted to block the King of Daliang and not let the King of Daliang go south.

In addition, the King of Daliang would also be their barrier, helping him reach the imperial army from the north.

Everyone discussed the details of the troops again, and then began to prepare busily.

It only took five days to summon the peasant soldiers, mobilize food and grass, and distribute armor. The county town, the fortress and the checkpoints completed the rotation of defense, and the original camp soldiers were all replaced by peasant soldiers.

On the tenth day of September, three thousand battalion soldiers and eight thousand battalion soldiers had gathered on the official road southwest of Taiping County.

The official road here can directly enter Baoning Prefecture, and there is also a Nuoshui River connecting Tongjiang County and Baoping County of Baoning Prefecture. After Nuoshui River reaches Baoping County, it merges with Qingshui River and Bashui River, that is, along Nuoshui River, you can reach Qingshui River and Bashui River today, and Qingshui River and Bashui River connect Mi Cang County, Nanjiang County, Bazhou and other places.

Nuoshui River, Qingshui River and Bashui River are not suitable for sailing large ships, but can sail three-meter-long small boats.

Therefore, this time the Taiping Army went out in three routes. The first route took advantage of the three rivers and used ships to transport food to directly take Tongjiang County, Baoping County, Bazhou, Nanjiang County and Mi Cang County.

The second route went directly to Baoning Prefecture City and occupied Hexi Pass and Nanjin Pass in the south of Baoning Prefecture City. As long as Hexi Pass and Nanjin Pass were occupied, Baoning Prefecture City would be safe and worry-free.

However, in this case, the Taiping Army will have to take Nanjia County in the south of Baoning Prefecture. This is also unavoidable. Nanjia County is flat and has no strategic location to defend. Occupying Nanjia County will increase the defense pressure of the Taiping Army.

So in order to reduce the future defense pressure of the Taiping Army, Yang Mingzhao can only give up Nanjia County first.

The third route will go all the way west to capture Jianzhou, Ziteng County, Guangyuan County and Lizhou Guard in the west and north of Baoning Prefecture.

Lizhou Guard is the guard post of Baoning Prefecture and the only military organization in Baoning Prefecture. However, the combat effectiveness of Lizhou Guard is almost the same as that of no guard.

So this third route will not have too much trouble except that the marching distance is a little longer.

Yang Mingzhao only has 3,000 battalion soldiers and 5,000 peasant soldiers available, but they are still divided into three routes. It is not that he is arrogant, but there is really nothing in Baoning Prefecture that can fight.

The only trouble is Baoning Prefecture City, because there is also a well-known Jianghu Sect in Baoning Prefecture City.

Compared with the government officials and the soldiers of the guards, the Jianghu sects are the biggest trouble.

There is also the office set up by the Shangwu Division in Baoning Prefecture, which is also a small trouble.

On September 11, the Taiping Army set out, and Yang Mingzhao's first expansion war officially started.

No mistakes, one sentence, one post, one content, one 6, one 9, one book, one bar, take a look!

However, this expansion war was much smoother than Yang Mingzhao expected.

On September 12, the army led by Deng Xing took Tongjiang County. The process of taking the city was probably similar to their previous attack on Taiping County.

After taking Tongjiang County, Deng Xing left 500 peasant soldiers and officials who came with the army, and the next day they went down the river and took Baoping County.

On September 14, Baoping County was taken.

On September 17, Bazhou was captured.

On September 20, although the officials of Nanjiang County had received the news, when the army was approaching the city, the officials in the city chose to surrender directly.

On September 23, Deng Xing came to Mi Cang County, the last target of their battle.

Mi Cang County and Lizhou Wei are both located in the north of Baoning Prefecture. Together with Taiping County, they almost blocked all the roads to the south of Hanzhong Prefecture. Only Daning County in the northeast of Kuizhou Prefecture could allow the King of Daliang who occupied Hanzhong Prefecture to go south.

Standing at the foot of Mi Cang County, Deng Xing looked at the low city wall, and his mouth twitched slightly.

This expansion war came too easily. It took them a total of twelve days from the start to Mi Cang County, but they didn't fight a decent battle.

The government offices they met along the way had almost no defense. They were all at the gates of the city, and the four gates were still wide open.

The same is true for Mi Cang County in front of them.

"Report, sir, the county magistrate, county magistrate, chief clerk and other officials in the city have abandoned the city and fled two days ago!" A soldier ran to report.

Well, another county was picked up for free.

What else can Deng Xing say? He can only let the soldiers accept the city and appease the people.

Deng Xing's side is a little too smooth, and Han Lin's side is also very smooth. They need to capture Jianzhou, Ziteng County, Guangyuan County and Lizhou Guard in the northwest of Baoning Prefecture.

Han Lin's first target is Jianzhou. Jianzhou is a big city with a height of three feet. In order to capture Jianzhou as soon as possible, Han Lin also specially arranged two sentries to mix into Jianzhou City in advance.

Jianzhou City still has some resistance. When Han Lin's troops arrived at Jianzhou City, the governor of Jianzhou City was ready to defend the city.

However, although they have some preparations, they don't have much.

At night, the soldiers who sneaked into the city created some chaos, then opened the city gate and led Han Lin into the city, and then the prefect in the city abandoned the city and ran away.

Well, the prefect was well prepared to escape.

After taking Jianzhou, the remaining goals of the Western Army were basically the same as Deng Xing's. They occupied the northwest of Baoning Prefecture with almost no obstacles.

The only thing that was not smooth was the Central Army led by Yang Mingzhao himself.

They arrived at the foot of Baoning Prefecture on September 19. Baoning Prefecture was a city with high walls and deep moats. The city walls were more than three feet high, and there were urn walls on all four sides.

The moat outside the city was two feet wide and connected to Lingjiang River.

Yang Mingzhao had only one thousand battalion soldiers and two thousand peasant soldiers. Facing such a strong city, he could only be stationed outside the city.

In the camp, Yang Mingzhao and Li Dagui, Yang Ze, Qi Zhang, Chen Buyu, Chen Buren, Zhao Kai and others stared at each other.

"What should we do?" Yang Mingzhao asked a little depressed.

They had already inquired about the situation of Baoning Prefecture. There were one thousand guards and hundreds of servants in the city.

The guards here are the soldiers of Lizhou Guard, and as for the runners, they are the young and strong recruited by the government, including the runners, jailers, civilians, etc. of various yamen, and of course the warriors in the Shangwu Division.

It seems that there are not many soldiers, but don't forget that there are still 50,000 civilians in the city, and these 50,000 civilians are enough to recruit tens of thousands of young and strong.

If the officials in the city are capable, they can recruit tens of thousands of young and strong to defend the city.

At that time, let alone they only have 3,000 soldiers, even 30,000 soldiers will find it difficult to conquer the city.

"Zhang Mo and Li Cheng have already sneaked into the city. Should we let them cooperate with each other?" Yang Ze suggested.

Li Dagui shook his head, "No, they only have 200 people. Unless it is the most tense time of the battle, it will be difficult for them to seize the city gate!"

It is possible to cooperate with each other, but they also need to cooperate.

However, the problem now is not whether it can cooperate with each other, but that they can't attack the city.

They have only 3,000 people, and attacking the city now is tantamount to delivering food.

"Why don't we wait for Old Deng and Old Han to come?" Yang Ze said again.

"They have to leave soldiers to help the officials divide the land, so they can't bring many soldiers." Li Dagui said.

There are so many cities, even if only 500 people are left in each city to help the officials divide the land, it will take more than 4,000 soldiers, which means that Deng Xing and Han Lin can only bring another 1,000 soldiers at most.

Yang Ze looked at Li Dagui with dissatisfaction, "This won't work, that won't work, you should think of a way!"

He made two suggestions, but they were both rejected by Li Dagui, which made Yang Ze a little depressed.

Li Dagui laughed, "I really have an idea!"

"If you have something to say, say it quickly, don't keep us in suspense!" Yang Ze said.

Li Dagui didn't bother to pay attention to this simple-minded man, looked at Yang Mingzhao, and said, "Sir, the commander of the Shangwu Division of Baoning Prefecture is named Li Baoshan!"

Yang Mingzhao was a little puzzled, "Do you know this person?"